Someone once asked me how many books I read per year. I had no idea, I know it seems like a lot. It got me thinking. A book a week? Two books a week? Sometimes it takes me a month to read one book. I had no idea. So a year ago I decided to track them. I linked up with Goodreads and joined the 2014 Reading Challenge. You choose how many books you want to read and you track them through their website. (You can even link every book you ever bought through your Amazon account to make it easy to get started!) The challenge, itself, does the math and tells you how far behind, or ahead, of schedule you are as the year progresses. I decided I would try to read 52 books. I ended up reading 69. I am glad I joined. Have you ever joined a reading challenge? There are a lot of different ones out there! Now, I wonder if 69 is my average or a fluke……. How many will I read in 2015?
As you can see, from this year’s favorites list, I read a variety of books, both old and new. From looking at my master list, of all the books I read in 2014, it does appear I choose non-fiction and historical fiction most often. Funny how that has evolved. I used to read Koontz, Patterson, Evanovitch…. primarily fiction, and now they are a rarity.
The books that stuck with me, this year, in no particular order are:|
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
James Madison by Lynne Chenney
Night by Elie Wiesel
Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin
My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Winter of the World by Ken Follett
Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
What about you? Did you read anything great this year??? Discover any new favorites? Do you use Goodreads? I’m always looking to friend other readers, with similar tastes, for recommendations.
Cheers to another great year of reading, exploring and finding new favorites!
P.S. Sometimes my links, for products on Amazon, are linked back to me. If you add the item to your Amazon cart and then purchase it I get a “little” Amazon store credit, as in pennies. I didn’t used to do this, but I started to recently because I was linking to Amazon anyway (hello, we all shop there) and I figured you wouldn’t mind if Amazon has to give me a free book now and again. Just letting you know, to keep things legit around here.
Sewfrench 
I don’t know if I’m up to joining a reading challenge, but it’s a good idea to keep a list of books read during the year. I’ll think I’ll start keeping a list for this year and see how I do ^^ Won’t be anywhere near your grand total though as I’ve just picked up “The Jewel in the Crown” (again) and it’s a mammouth 1500 pages, so could take me a few months lol
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Ooh, a second read of a 1500 page book? I better look into that one!
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i like Goodreads because I can go back and look at those that I have listed to read as a reminder.
I get a bit tired of being reminded that I am STILL reading something. Yes, a few books took me a long time to get through. Historical fiction are my favorite as well as the young adult books. I would say 69 books is an impressive number.
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I definitely use Goodreads as a “to read” list. It is easy to see them all in one place when I’m checking what is available at the library.
I get a lot of that “still reading”, too. I just hope people think I forgot to update it, LOL
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Two words: Cloud Atlas
It’s blowing my mind!
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Ooh, Heather! We loved that movie and wanted to watch it again because there was so many things to think about and the movie moved faster than you could comprehend. I imagine the book is 100 times better! Thanks for that idea!
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Oh boy. Do you know there are 5 books with the name Cloud Atlas on Goodreads? All different authors! Were you referring to the one by David Mitchell that the movie was made after?
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Have you read the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear? This is my current favorite! Happy New Year!
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Oh, that sounds right up my alley, Katherine! I added the first one to my list! Thank you!
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It is fun to keep a list of what you’ve read during the year even though I didn’t do well with that this past year. I’ve found some on your list that I now want to read. Great reading wishes for 2015!!
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Reblogged this on daphnedawn and commented:
Keeping track of the books you read…
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Nice suggestions here! Did not thinking of tracking my reading on Goodreads. Might have to do that. I loved CloudAtlas too – the David Mitchell one. (Now we need a list like this for movies I watch a lot of those LOL!) I really liked Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and Stone’s Fall by Ian Pears, both read last year.
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Oh the Maisie Dobbs looks good. Going to put that series on my list to read and its ‘Iain Pears’ not Ian. Sorry! I read a lot more but literature like Austen, and Thomas Hardy – great stuff and I want to do more of that and add some Shakespeare too this year.
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Happy New Year, Asha!!
I do try to weave classic reads among the educational history and then an occasional fluff when it gets too heavy! I suspected Heather was talking about the David Mitchell book. I added it to my library list.
Thanks for the suggestions!!
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I used to be an avid reader. Over the last couple of years, quilting has consumed the time I would otherwise spend reading. I’d love to do more reading, but I cannot seem to give up my quilting time. 😉 Maybe I just need more hours in the day.
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I have to admit, I listen to some of my books, Kathy! I could never get as much quilting done as I’d like, if I didn’t. The headphones buffered the machine noise, when I am piecing, too! But if you figure out how to squeeze out some extra hours in the day I’d pay to know about it!
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Your recommendations look great, I’m going to check them out. I’ll also send you a goodreads friend request. I love having new ideas for what to read!
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